


Frills Attached

by EvilMuffins



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Crossdressing, M/M, maid dresses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:14:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23269765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvilMuffins/pseuds/EvilMuffins
Summary: Looking around, Akechi couldn’t help but muse to himself why he was needed for this project at all. Surely, Yusuke could have just painted a self portrait for the Maid & Butler Cafe poster? He was certainly handsome enough himself. Instead Akechi asked, “So, should we get started?”---Yusuke needs a model for his class's cafe poster, and only the best will do.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Kitagawa Yusuke
Comments: 15
Kudos: 69





	Frills Attached

**Author's Note:**

> My piece for the P5 maid cafe zine!  
> This version contains an extra paragraph that wasn't in the zine. Think of it as a director's cut uwu

It wasn’t as if he were trying to avoid Yusuke, per se. Akechi just so happened to be aware of the fact that he and a member of the Phantom Thieves attended the same school, that’s all. Not only was Yusuke a year below him, but also in an entirely different department. The art students attending Kosei and those studying law rarely found occasion to cross paths. 

Unless it came time for the annual cultural festival.

“This is awfully sudden, isn’t it, Kitagawa?” Akechi asked, uncertain what to make of Yusuke’s unexpected offer. What he was certain of, however, were the eyes of the other students firmly glued upon them as they stood right in the middle of a crowded hallway during the height of lunch break. “I’m awfully busy with a new case this week...”

“As the student with the most aesthetically pleasing features out of the entirety of the student body, I came to the conclusion that you would be the logical choice,” Yusuke explained, jaw set in determination. Akechi had quickly learned from their times traversing Mementos together with the rest of the Phantom Thieves that once Yusuke had set his mind to something, that was the end of it. 

Although it was far from the first time that Akechi had ever been called handsome, he had never heard it phrased quite in that way before. He also wasn’t entirely sure that he enjoyed the way that it caused the back of his neck to prickle. 

“Besides,” Yusuke continued, “I’m certain that your fans would enjoy seeing you on the poster. Would you really care to disappoint them?”

Despite the fact that Yusuke rarely seemed to take note of his own admirers throughout the school, even he couldn’t help but notice the clusters of boys and girls alike currently sprouting up around them like weeds drinking in the nourishing rays of gossip.

“Alright, sure,” Akechi agreed finally. “What would be the fun in having a school festival if students from different classes didn’t take the time to cooperate a little?”

It wouldn’t be a good look to refuse, Akechi reasoned, and beyond that, a chance to observe another member of the Phantom Thieves apart from the rest of the group might not be such a bad idea after all. If Akechi had to spend an afternoon cramped up in a dorm room with one of Joker’s lackeys, Yusuke Kitagawa certainly wouldn’t have been his last choice of the lot. 

* * *

“Please, make yourself at home.” Yusuke motioned toward his modest sitting area once Akechi had removed his shoes. 

If Akechi hadn’t been invited to the dorm room just hours earlier, he might have gotten the impression that Yusuke hadn’t been expecting company. 

Paint-spattered dropcloth had been tossed over every surface, although very little of it was actually visible behind the multitude of canvases left in various stages of completion. 

“Nice place you’ve got here.” Akechi nodded appreciatively, taking the time to absorb each piece peppering the area. The lively space was a stark contrast to his own drab apartment. 

“Thank you,” Yusuke replied, a smile crossing his face as he followed Akechi’s gaze toward one of his more polished pieces. “I find that it suits my needs.”

Looking around, Akechi couldn’t help but muse to himself why he was needed for this project at all. Surely, Yusuke could have just painted a self portrait for the Maid & Butler Cafe poster? He was certainly handsome enough himself. Instead Akechi asked, “So, should we get started?”

“Of course. Please take a seat while I go fetch your costume.” Without allowing time for Akechi to question or protest, Yusuke disappeared into the depths of the near-by coat closet. 

“How exciting!” Akechi chuckled, relaxing his jaw as best he could so that Yusuke couldn’t detect how his teeth had grit. “It’s like Halloween came early!”

Although he supposed that he should have seen this coming, Akechi had half-way hoped that Yusuke might be satisfied with merely using his face as a model, adding in the butler costume once he had left. Artists could do that, couldn’t they? Akechi had always envied artists, when he really thought about it. Creating something out of nothing, making any whim a reality...

While he waited, Akechi made a commendable attempt at clearing a space for himself on the couch, however stacking a plastic bin full of paint tubes on top of another resulted in the entire thing cascading onto the floor. Surreptitiously, he nudged the lot of them underneath the couch with his foot. 

“Here we are,” Yusuke declared, holding up the fruit of his spelunking in the form of a flat, rectangular box, which he presented to Akechi. 

Akechi lifted the lid. 

Despite the fact that he had never received presents from a relative while growing up, the situation at hand was something like Akechi imagined that it must have felt like to receive clothing from an older family member. Looking up from the bundle of black clothing in his lap, he smiled a smile that would appease even the most well-meaning, yet clueless, great-aunt. 

“Where can I try it on?”

* * *

The crisp white frill perched on top of his head bobbed as Akechi bent to pull up his tights. 

When he was little, Akechi had always wanted to dress up as one of the Feathermen, despite the fact that such elaborate costumes were in short supply at the orphanage. Although it wasn’t nearly as exiting as the type of dress-up game he used to daydream about, Akechi could admit that there was a certain appeal in transforming into a completely different person through a mere change of clothes. 

He gave the hem of the black skirt an experimental pluck as straightened up to face the mirror. 

Akechi would be lying if he were to say that he hadn’t been expecting a butler costume when he opened the box, but he wouldn’t deny that the short black dress did suit him. Even the puffed sleeves flattered his slender arms. It was his face, of course, that had gotten him nearly as far in life as his power to invade Metaverse had, and he had long ago learned to take advantage of it. 

“Is everything alright in there?” A deep voice came through the door, followed by a concerned knock. If the bathroom door hadn’t been locked, Akechi wondered if Yusuke might have just let himself right in. 

Akechi saved him the trouble, turning the knob and stepping out. 

“Shall we get started then?” he asked, voice saccharine enough to make up for the lacks of sweets for him to serve, breezing past Yusuke back into the sitting area. 

“Yes, quite.” Yusuke cleared his throat. 

Once Akechi was perched upon a stool, Yusuke set to work, situating a moderately sized canvas onto an easel. 

“Forgive me for saying this,” Akechi began, smoothing the apron over his lap, “But wouldn’t it have saved trouble for your class to just to ask someone skilled in digital art to make up the poster?”

Yusuke turned to face him, fingers forming into the shape of a frame as he sized Akechi up from head to toe. “The students voted, and in the end they wished my artwork to represent our cafe. I won’t deny the fact that my art contains certain qualities that the works of the other students in the class might be in want of…” Yusuke’s hands dropped, his head tilting slightly to the side. “Would you care to cross your legs a bit? No… At the ankle. Yes, like that. Good. As I was saying, I then elected to persuade you to become the model, as I believe in a job done right, and thus no one less than the most handsome student in the school would suit my needs.” 

There was the prickle again. Suddenly, the lacey headpiece felt like a stack of dictionaries balanced on top of his head. He longed to toss the thing across the room, although that would likely trigger another avalanche. 

Yusuke had paused following his explanation, and Akechi wondered for a moment if he had managed to put one of the pieces of the costume on incorrectly. There had been a frustrating amount of tiny accessories in the bundle. “Something wrong?”

Frowning, Yusuke stepped closer, reaching out a hand in order to brush a stray piece of hair away from Akechi’s face. Tucking the strand away behind Akechi’s ear, Yusuke’s fingertips grazed Akechi’s cheek in the process, as warm as they were calloused. 

“Perfect,” Yusuke muttered with satisfied nod. 

As soon as Yusuke faced away again in order to ready his paints, Akechi petulantly crossed his ankles the other way, cheeks burning. “I have an appointment later tonight, so maybe we should get moving things along.”

“Of course,” Yusuke replied with a dutiful nod, dipping his brush into one of the colorful wells of his pallette. 

Akechi watched as the artist put brush to canvas. 

Serenity wasn’t an emotion that Akechi had ever had much of an opportunity to make acquaintance with during his turbulent lifetime. Soon, however, he found himself transfixed by the rhythmic motion of Yusuke’s hand sweeping across the white surface, leaving of swath of monochrome in his wake as he brought the dress to life. 

Could this have been what it felt like to watch one of those paint mixing videos? Akechi wondered. He had seen them come up as recommended whenever he would upload his local cafe review videos, although he had never had the time or desire to click on one. Somehow, he thought that they might not be nearly as enthralling.

Now and again, Yusuke would take his eyes from the canvas in order to study Akechi. Why was it then, that Akechi felt as if he were the one committing a face a to memory instead? Yusuke’s look of concentration--brows furrowed, lips set--it was different from the expression he wore while battling in Mementos in a way that Akechi didn’t want to forget. 

“Please humor me with your honest opinion,” Yusuke requested abruptly, standing from his own stool. 

“Finished already?” Akechi blinked, genuinely surprised. Countless hours spent slogging through the Metaverse, sitting still for hair and make up sessions that took three times as long as his segment on whatever TV show the housewives would be tittering over in the grocery store that week... time had always crawled by for Akechi. But not today, not now.

“Of course,” Yusuke began, and Akechi might have detected a hint of smugness, if not for what he said next, “Having a remarkable subject such as yourself helped to speed along the process.”

“What can I say? I’m a patient man.” Akechi stood from the stool, drawing closer to the finished painting. Although some of the other paintings propped up around the room were more abstract in style, Yusuke had decided to run with a more realistic angle this time around. The attention to detail in the lace was exquisite in particular, white and delicate like the frosting on a gingerbread house. His eyes returned to Yusuke’s face rather than lingering on the one in the painting. “Anyway, I’m not really an art critic, but I do think that this might help to draw in a lonely student or two.”

Yusuke gave a receptive nod, seemingly satisfied by the answer. “I only wish I could repay you for the favor somehow… I wasn’t even able to provide any snackfoods for you to partake of...” he lamented. 

An idea struck Akechi then, speaking before he could rethink himself. “Repay me by stopping over my apartment for dinner sometime. I won’t be wearing a maid dress, but I’d be happy to make dinner for you.”

As expected, Yusuke leapt at the offer, mirroring the sensation deep inside of Akechi’s chest. “That would be most kind of you.” 

The task at hand completed, the two bid each other a good evening, before Yusuke showed Akechi out. It was out in the dormitory hallway that Akechi then realized something: He had forgotten to fish for any intel on the Phantom Thieves. It was no matter, he told himself. Soon, he would be spending another evening with Yusuke again, and perhaps another after that, or maybe even a third just to be certain...

  
  



End file.
